


Came For the Coffee Stayed For the Barista

by crocodilepatronus



Category: Downton Abbey
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Coffee Shops, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-05
Updated: 2013-05-05
Packaged: 2017-12-10 11:04:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,146
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/785332
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crocodilepatronus/pseuds/crocodilepatronus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>now we can officially call ourselves a fandom because we have a coffeeshop au. up to the reader to decide if this is modern au or just au. A bit of a role reversal tho because Jimmy is the one pining after Thomas. Well they're pining after eachother.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Came For the Coffee Stayed For the Barista

There was a coffeeshop around the corner from where he worked. The line was long but he didn’t mind. It felt like it ended too soon in fact. Whenever he was watching the handsome, black-haired barista behind the counter time seemed to just fly by.

Jimmy knew it might be bold to do so but he couldn’t take his eyes off him if he wanted to.

He thought it a little funny to listen to him take orders. He was polite and charming when he was working but Jimmy had walked by him more than once standing in the alleyway by the shop smoking with a co-worker on his breaks and speaking in much coarser tones. He wasn’t sure which way he liked him better.

He barely supressed a smirk as he told some lady who’d been holding the line up for 5 minutes by changing her order a dozen times to “have a nice day” with a thinly veiled sneer.  _Right_ …

Jimmy had all of his expressions memorized- all the fake smiles he gave the customers and all the contemptuous leers he saved for when their backs were turned. But the one he had imprinted in his memory was the look on his face when Jimmy had first walked in. On that day he had been the one who couldn’t keep his eyes off of Jimmy.

Jimmy had been coming back every morning for a month since then. . Jimmy had never been attracted to anyone the way he was to this person who was practically a stranger to him. He wasn’t a timid person but in matters of the heart he was as shy as they came, he supposed. He still didn’t know the handsome barista’s name. Sometimes Jimmy thought it was all just a ridiculous one-sided crush.

But then he’d muster up the courage to say something like “nice weather we’re having” after his usual coffee request and he’d seen the barista look up from his notepad with a start and for a moment an expression of pure, unadultered, bliss would cross his face as if Jimmy had just kissed him instead of simply mentioning the weather. And he’d mumbled “yes, very nice…” looking down and barely containing a grin.

After the first few times that he’d picked up his coffee, he hadn’t even asked what his name was anymore and Jimmy felt an electric current run through him everytime the other man called his name out to pick up his coffee and when he saw it written in his order pad in the man’s neat handwriting.

Once Jimmy had come in rather late in the day when the man had been taking his lunch break, sitting alone in a corner, reading a book. Jimmy had ordered from a different barista and then done the bravest thing he could remember doing in a long time and certainly the bravest thing he’d ever done for love. He’d sat down.

Jimmy had never stayed after getting his drink before and the café was almost empty save for the two of them. He sat across the room from the other man, towards the front. He could feel the other man looking at him. Atleast he hoped he was looking at him. And then the silence of the room was broken with the squeak of a chair and as Jimmy’s heart beat loudly in his ears, the black haired Barista took a seat at the table only a few feet away from his. He looked at Jimmy and smiled briefly and Jimmy realized he was staring at him with his mouth partially open. He quickly closed his mouth and cleared his throat awkwardly.

The man shrugged with one shoulder mantaining his smile and said “I wanted a better view.”

Jimmy’s mouth dropped open again.

“… of the biscottis.” the man said after a pause, gesturing to the nearby display case.

Jimmy had the urge to laugh out loud but instead smiled tightly and looked down into his coffee, knowing he was red in the face. The other man had given Jimmy a knowing smile, his lovely blue eyes alight with mischief and then gone back to his book looking about as pleased with himself as someone could be. Jimmy hadn’t the nerve to even look at him after that, knowing he’d only blush again.

That had been a week ago.

Now Jimmy was next in line and he could feel his heart rate climbing.

When he got to the counter the man looked up at him briefly then back down.

“What can I get for you?”

“Just a black coffee please.”

“And what’s your name, sir?”

Jimmy’s heart sank all the way down to his toes. He’d forgotten his name.

He hoped it wasn’t showing on his face how stupidly heartbroken he felt.

“Jimmy” he muttered dejectedly.

“I’m Thomas.”

His heart shot with great speed from his toes back into his chest. Had he really just…? The man hadn’t even looked up from his order pad. In shock, Jimmy looked around quickly to see if anyone else had heard. The people in line behind him were a man talking to his friend and a woman trying to manage her young son. No one had heard.

He looked back to the other man… Thomas. His face hadn’t changed at all and he was still looking down as if he hadn’t said anything out of the ordinary.

“I’ll- I’ll have a biscotti too.” he added quickly, astonished that he even had the capacity to speak at this moment.

“Sorry, didn’t hear that.” Thomas said, again without looking up from his order pad… even though he was clearly writing down on it “BISCOTTI”.

Jimmy swallowed. “what?”

Thomas looked up and pierced him with those asstonishing blue eyes.

“Didn’t hear your order.”

“A… a biscotti?”

“Can’t understand you, sir, I’m afraid.” he said, his expression nearly unreadable save a slight twitch at the corner of his lips upward. He leaned across the counter on his elbows and turned his head slightly.

With his eyes still locked on Jimmy’s he said slowly in a low voice “C’mere and say it in my ear so I can hear you-  _ **tell**_  me what it is you  _ **want**_.”

Jimmy willed his body forward and whispered in his ear in a shaking breath “…you…”

For an instant he felt high on the feeling of his face close to Thomas’s and then he pulled away quickly.

Thomas stood up straight again. His face was unreadable and panic momentarily gripped Jimmy. I’ve been all wrong he thought frantically.

But Thomas smiled politely as his eyes met Jimmy’s and the look he was giving him put Jimmy’s fears at ease.

“I can get that for you.” he said.

When Jimmy got his biscotti there was a note in the bag for it with a meeting time and place written on it. 


End file.
